E-Paper
Karnataka to resume physical classes for 9th, 10th and Pre Uni post August 23
The decision by the state government comes at a time when there has been a trend of rising infections from across the state.
Bengaluru Karnataka chief minister Basvaraj Bommai on Friday said that offline classes for 9, 10 and pre-university students would commence from August 23, raising apprehension among parents and other groups amid fears of an imminent third wave of Covid-19 in the state.
“It was decided to commence the 9th, 10th and pre-university classes from August 23rd and based on the Covid situation in the state, a decision regarding reopening of primary schools and 8th standard would be taken by the end of August,” said a statement by the chief minister’s office (CMO), attributing it to Bommai.
“We have decided to conduct classes on alternate days. Guidelines on Covid norms that need to be followed during the reopening of schools would be issued,” the chief minister added.
The decision by the state government comes at a time when there has been a trend of rising infections from across the state. Karnataka has been firm in blaming those coming in from Kerala and Maharashtra for the rising cases while across the state, including state capital Bengaluru, people continue to move around freely with no masks, social distancing or any other precautions.
Just two days back, there were hundreds of people gathered in Raj Bhavan for the swearing in ceremony of the newly inducted ministers, chanting slogans and brushing against each other to get a glimpse and picture of their favourite leaders.
Bommai said that the administration will review the intensity of the imminent third wave of infections and take a call on reopening physical classes for classes below 8th grade at the end of the month.
On Friday, Karnataka reported 1,805 new infections, taking the active caseload to 24,328, according to the daily bulletin of the state health department.
The positivity rate stood at 1.11% while 36 more deaths took the toll to 36,741 and fatality rate to 1.99%, data shows.
Bengaluru reported 441 new infections and 434 discharges taking its active caseload to 8,560.
However, Karnataka’s testing rate remains at around 1.30 lakhs (RT-PCR), indicating that the state may not have been taking enough precautions to prevent a third wave.
The shortage of vaccines has also weighed on the state’s management of the pandemic.
Karnataka has so far administered 3,23,42,625 doses of vaccines of which the first and second dose account for 2,51,84,304 and 71,58,321 respectively, according to information on Cowin portal. There were 1,81,824 doses administered on Friday. From a high of administering over 7.68 lakh doses of vaccines on August 2, the numbers have dipped to 2.33 lakhs, 2.59 lakhs and 1.63 lakhs since then, data shows.
Bommai said that strict action and measures will be taken in border districts to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the state.
He added that there would be a weekend curfew imposed in the border districts of Karnataka, which includes districts like Belagavi, Bidar, Vijayapura and Kalaburagi that share a border with Maharashtra. Dakshina Kannada, Kodagu, Mysuru and Chamarajanagar will also have weekend curfews that share a border with Kerala.
